Chapter 29: How Do I Make Training Fun?

I sighed as I stared at my notebook. Even after 'sleeping on it', I had no idea what to do for training. Perhaps, I shouldn't have been so stubborn toward meditation. I grumbled and I pressed my head down on my desk. For once, I wished it wasn't the weekend! At least school would've given me something to do. Plus, I could've asked Ava to clarify stuff.

"Are you feeling well?" Purpura asked, poking my back. "If you aren't, you can go back to sleep."

"I'm fine," I mumbled.

He put down his cup of coffee beside me. "Here, give me that." He held his smooth hands toward me. Although, there were some rough patches around the fingers and palm. Had he been trained to use a weapon too?

It was hard to swallow his entire life story; growing up in solitary confinement and being given very little to eat. If it were me, I would've gone crazy. Looking back, I get why he threatened me when we first met.

I touched my neck as I looked at myself in the mirror to my right. The nail marks from that day had healed, but there was some slight scarring. Luckily I knew how to put on concealer. Having to explain everything to my parents would've been tedious.

"Hello, Purpura to Souta!" Purpura said, bonking my head.

"Ow! Don't do that!"

He huffed. "You keep zoning out. Are you sure you feel alright?"

Was he that concerned for me?

"Yeah. Zoning out is normal for me!" I said, nodding.

"I'm starting to notice that," he said, picking up the notebook. His hands scanned through it.

"See anything that might work for me?" I asked.

"As I said, training isn't meant to be fun. You'll need to put aside that childish mentality if you wish to grow stronger. That said, I think you should consult your parents. Which of them taught you how to fight?"

"That would be Pa." I frowned. If I asked, would he make any more quips about my sexuality? Hopefully, he wouldn't. It was stressful. I'd learned to accept myself, but sometimes, I couldn't help but feel alien. Meeting Davina didn't help with that either. Like, was my attraction not one hundred percent toward boys? And if part of me was attracted to girls, should I just pursue that? But that wouldn't be right. Attraction and romance weren't necessarily the same thing. At the moment, my heart belonged to Sehun. Denying these feelings toward him wouldn't only hurt him, but me.

"I see. Then you should have him teach you whatever else he might know."

I nodded. "Alright." I slowly got up. "Well, I'm out! Be sure to stay out of trouble! Don't make my room messy."

He sighed. "If anything, I think this place needs some cleaning." He picked up my blanket and started to make the bed.

I grinned. "At least you're picking up after yourself."

He rolled his eyes. "The one who kicked the blanket to the ground was you. Also, I clean up after myself however I can."

"Wow. You really can be literal at times."

He took a deep breath. "Just go and do what you're going to do."

"On it!" I dashed out of the room and ran downstairs. Dad had made us breakfast today, but I didn't get the chance to eat it with the rest of my family. It was okay, but nothing to write home about. Hmm, maybe I could've used cooking tips as currency to trade for training tips.

Father hummed, arms crossed, as he stared at the stove. He looked as pensive as I did a moment ago.

"You okay?" I asked, walking in.

He looked over his shoulder and smiled. "Uh, yeah. Nice to see you up and awake, champ. Did my pancakes fire you up?"

"Not really."

He sighed. "They weren't that good, were they? Your little brother thought they were elephant shaped..."

I laughed. "Well, they sort of looked funny. But I bet he liked that."

Pa put his hands on his hips and smiled. "True. So, what brings you to the kitchen? Didn't get filled up? I can make you some more."

"I want to do some training."

"Oh? You're really getting serious, eh? But why all of a sudden? It's not to impress someone, is it? Like I've said, humor is a better outlet."

"No, it's not that." I averted my eyes.

Should I tell him that the world might end? He is the adult here. If anyone should be saving the world, it should be him, not me.

"I just want to get stronger for my own sake," I said.

He stretched his arms. "Well, not that I mind. Follow me!"

I blinked. "Where to?"

"To a super special room meant just for training!"

"We're not going outside?"

"Assuming you've kept up with what I taught you, you're a lot stronger than when you were a kid. If we fight outside, our farm will get destroyed."

"True. But wouldn't our house get destroyed too?" I asked.

He grinned as he opened a door. "As I said, it's a special room."

My eyes widened at the set of wooden stairs lit by orange light from below. There were no torches in sight, however.

"I thought you said this was where the cleaning chemicals were kept!" I snapped.

He laughed. "If you cleaned more often, you might've figured it out by now. Uh, not that I'm much of a cleaner myself."

True, on both accounts.

I gawked as we reached the source of the strange light. No way! We had this down here all of this time?

"Hey, are these real citrines?" I asked, running over to one of the crystal spikes on the walls.

He nodded. "Yup! But don't think of selling them. I asked my old man the same thing and he told me that these things are nigh invulnerable."

"Really?" I tapped it but instantly regretted it as my hand throbbed. "It's harder than steel!"

"Much."

"How was this place even made?" I asked, spinning around as I took in the full view of our citrine dome. It felt as if we got teleported inside of a thunderegg, that is if all of the crystals inside were citrine.

He scratched the back of his head. "I'm not sure. Your mother might know."

I blinked. "But this is your place, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but your mom is more read on the lore of clan than I am."

"That's kind of sad."

I coughed. "H-hey, cut your father some lack!"

"How can I? You only watch television in the winter when you could've been reading some clan history."

He grumbled. "I'm not a total doofus."

Oh, so he admits it!

He frowned. "Although, maybe having someone with powers different from our own would help show you how these tricks work."

Ma knew about Purpura, but did Pa know? If he did, I could've gotten him to help. Would beat cleaning. Or maybe not. He was trained to be the perfect soldier. It was best not to ask him. The further he got from that life, the better.

"So no to training?" I asked.

"I can show you, but seeing them do their thing would be more helpful. I know! How about we invite Ava over?"

I narrowed my eyes. It was bad enough that she came over to wake me up every day for school, now I had to see her during my days off too? Although, this was a good chance to have her clarify the routine she wrote up for me.

"Fine. I'll go fetch her!" I said, running off.

"Alright! In the meantime, I'll warm up these old bones of mine!"

I laughed. "Come on, Pops. You aren't too old."

He chuckled as he dropped down and did some push-ups. "I know."

"Well, I'm off!" I ran up the stairs and nearly bumped into Ma as she hulled a basket of laundry.

"Careful, Sou!" Ma said, moving her basket away. She frowned. "Say, why did you come out of there?"

I pouted. "Ma lied to little Sou."

She looked away. "So, ya found out. I take it ya asked ya father to train ya?"

I nodded.

Her brow furrowed. "Something bad is coming, isn't it?"

"You know?"

She pressed her basket against her chest. "Ya usually do things as ya go. Taking time off to train isn't ya style."

I smiled. Bet mom could've written a better regimen than silly Ava. I knew she got instructed by a god to write it, but she could've tried adapting it to my learning style.

"Wait, you don't look sweaty."

"That's because we haven't begun yet. Dad suggested I get Ava to better see the effects of the new technique he's gonna teach."

She smiled. "That's good, but remember, you're only a kid even if you are the rebirth of the great sage."

I gasped. "How ya know everything, Ma?"

She laughed. "I don't. But I can figure stuff out. Ya dreams align with the lore of the Great Sage of Citrine."

So that was it.

"You figured it out because of this morning, right?"

She nodded. "Although, I did get a sense that you were a special one since you were in my womb."

"Aww, Ma!" I said, snuggling her.

"Sou! You're going to make me drop the laundry! I just washed it."

"Say, where are the little rascals?"

"They're playing in ya room. I asked Purpura to babysit them."

"What?! Thought ya didn't trust the guy."

"I don't, but ya seem to."

I turned away. "Somewhat."

"We should probably tell ya father about him."

I sighed. "Fine."

Though, how good is that guy with kids?

I stared at the two Sou-looking kids who stared back at me.

"So, what do you Sous want to play?" I asked.

"I wanna play tag!" Sou's sister said.

I stared at the room I had just partially cleaned.

"This room might be too small for that."

She crossed her arms and pouted. "But Sou plays tag with me."

No wonder this room was a mess...

"Cards!" Sou's brother said, swinging his arms into the air.

"Cards?"

He nodded and got up from the carpet, he ran over to the door and tried to open it.

"Here. I'll get that for you."

The toddler giggled as he trodded over to his room. He jumped, trying to reach the doorknob.

I sighed and opened it. His room was around the same size as Sou's. On the other side was a pink bed. He shared his room with his sister? Was Sou too messy to have shared his room with his little brother? Although, he was the type who liked to have his privacy.

The kid crawled under his bed and came back out with a box.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Mystic Cards!" he said, opening it up. Inside were several cards.

"Mystic? That's not the same card game as your show, is it?"

He shook his head. "That's an online game. We have no internet. A stranger gave me these cards."

"A stranger?"

The kid nodded. "A white-haired guy with golden eyes. He wore white robes and had the air of a chicken."

I blinked. A chicken?

"Yeah. He said I reminded him of when he was little."

"He seemed as fruity as big bro!" his sister said.

Fruity? What did that mean? 

"You should be warier toward strangers. Not all are good people," I said.

"Big bro said the same thing," the kid said as he took out a card. It was of a white rooster with citrines.

"What a strange card." I stared at the writing. There was a sticky note on the card with chicken scratch. Underneath it were alien characters. Where in the world was this language from? Or maybe it was a long bygone one. Although I could read the language from the Era of the Sages which was among the first writing systems. If it were ancient, it had to be from a different place too.

"The mister wrote those notes!"

"I see. His handwriting is atrocious. Can you read this?"

He nodded. "It says, Citrine Avian; one of the legendary crystal beasts. It heralds the dawn and dusk. When played, it decreases the attack of opponent spirits by five-hundred."

"How do you know how to read?"

"Big bro taught me!"

"Sou might be goofy, but he's a bookworm," Sou's sister said, giggling.

So that's why his room was littered with books on the night we met.

"So, how do you play this game?"

The kid placed his box on the floor and rummaged through it. He took out a piece of paper with the same chicken scratch as the cards.

"Here are the rules!" he exclaimed.

My eyes scanned through it. "It mentions a deck of forty cards. How many does yours have?"

"Forty."

"But we need two to play," his sister said.

The kid frowned. "Oh, yeah..."

I sighed. Seemed this person didn't figure that part out when he introduced the game to the kid.

"I know, we could split it into two! Twenty, twenty!" Sou's sister said.

Her brother smiled. "Good idea!"

"Although, the combos available will be limited due to the low number of cards," I said.

"True..."

"You seem to know a lot about cards. Did you play a lot of card games before?" Sou's sister asked.

I picked up the deck. "I used to play them with my father." At least the person I thought was my father. If that man existed at all. Sometimes, I felt as if I had dreamt him up. Or maybe, he wasn't my father but the father of that girl I dreamt about, the princess of Quartz.